A Glimpse Behind the Doors

Dear Family and Friends,

Sunday, we (Rich, Nancy, Chuck and I) did our usual walk to town. On the way we met up with friends (Dean, Bill, Valerie and Will) in the San Sebastian plaza. Just as we arrived in the plaza a band was setting up to play. My Spanish is good enough that I could read the banner: On the first Friday of every month is the day of alternative transportation. We listened for awhile and then continued on our walk.


As we walked on towards town through the historic district we were invited by a man to see his house. I can´t imagine any citizens in the USA inviting foreigners into their house, but the Ecuadorian people are very friendly this way.

We eagerly accepted his invitation because his house is a typical colonial style home. We have walked past little doors on the street and wondered just what the houses looked like that were behind those doors.


Actually, Nancy and I were given a tour of a colonial home by another person a few weeks ago but at that time I just did not have the nerve to ask if I could take photographs. This time I did and the man was very gracious.


After we walked through the doors on the street, we entered a narrow hallway which opened up into a beautiful covered courtyard.


We got to see the living room. Notice the patterned wood parque floors. This house is over a hundred years old and these are the original floors.

This house has two large courtyards with rooms off each side.

We were then taken into the backyard. Back there is the family factory that produces blue jeans. The little boy playing with the green car is the grandson of the man who invited us in.


We were so happy to get a glimpse of what is behind the doors we pass by on a daily basis.

Chuck phoned to tell me he made it to Quito and again to let me know he and Brad were in the jungle. They still had a two hour boat trip down river before they reached their destination (out of cell phone range).

A few hours later I got an email from Chuck. He said they had made it to the lodge and they were having a nice time. He said that he would email me again when they got to Banos because the internet at the lodge cost $10.00 per hour. That is expensive for Ecuador. I guess the lodge has to use satilite for internet like cruise ships.

Our good friends, David and Christa, had me over for a delicious grilled tuna dinner last night. They are wonderful people.

I´m posting this from an internet cafe because my keyboard on my laptop started typing numbers instead of letters. Can´t read a think I type! If any of you readers are computer savy and have any ideas on what the problem might be, I would appreciate your help. My personal computer tech is in the jungle.

Much love,
Nancy

PS: The computer I am using does not have spell check turned on, so please excuse any misspellings.